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Here's a breakdown of Siglyn's Guess Who. Numbers on the picture correspond to the numbers below. All but #3 have a story snippet (mainly because that one was something I created for OC Training)

  1.       Siglyn may not be part of the warriors, but like all centaurs she has been taught how to hunt for and defend herself and her herd mates. Most would agree that she has uncanny accuracy, but that is from intense practice and a need to make sure that whatever she shoots does not suffer. She is more likely to bring her quarry down in a shot to the eye or through the ear than to have to give chase to something mortally wounded but not dead. She has no problems with killing if it means survival for her and her herd mates and friends. The waves on her quiver show that her people still remember the vanished ocean.

Looking back on their escape, Yokov was amazed that the guards weren’t smart enough to just get out of their way. The damage would have far less. It started at a pounding speed with Yokov in the lead. The first gate was slammed closed in his face and he had to pull his horse back and around in a maneuver that might have broken the neck of a lesser trained animal. Reidalv came up to the gate with a terrifying roar, his mace swinging. Yokov saw first-hand that the gate had no chance against the raging centaur’s mace and huge hooves. Reidalv was a living battering ram, even the arrows shot at him seemed to just bounce right off his chest as Siglyn skillfully targeted those shooting at her cousin to reduce the danger. In what seemed like seconds, Reidalv had reduced the gate to splinters and the three of them, with Siglyn leading Snorer’s horse behind her, raced out. The second and third gates suffered the same fate. The fourth and final gate was metal, but there was no chance for the guard to get it closed for Siglyn proved to be an absolute quick and deadly aim with her arrows. All told, the damage left was bad, but it wasn’t nearly enough to pay back Gods’ Glass for what they’d lost.

    2.       Siglyn’s abilities range from simple calming to the ability to “mute” memories. She doesn’t get rid of them, but she can make them less intense and therefore less traumatizing. That way they’re still there as a reminder, especially if the memories were from a dangerous event that almost killed the person involved. No point in getting rid of memories if the same mistake might happen.

He was brought out of his new dismay by Siglyn’s calm voice, “Snorer . . . or should I call you Nyle?”

“No. Not Nyle. I’m not him anymore. I don’t know who I am anymore. Call me Snorer. It suits, and I’m used to it.”

Siglyn made a soft snorting noise and moved her hands slightly, “All right, Snorer it shall be for now. I need you to not focus on the negative.”

“How am I supposed to do that? There’s so much negative!” He squeezed his eyes tighter and bit back the anger he suddenly felt.

“It was not your fault.”

“But it was! All . . .”

Siglyn’s voice was calm and soothing, “You did not torture your family. You did not kill them. The Wizard you mentioned, Shok’Artel, he was responsible for all of it, correct?”

Snorer fought to keep still, and his eyes closed but all he wanted to do was to run away. He bit out his response through gritted teeth, “Yes. But it wouldn’t have happened if I hadn’t been so cocky. I thought I could kill the King without any complications.”

“Did your client warn you of the danger?”

Snorer suddenly stopped tensing up and relaxed in surprise as he managed to recall his initial hiring. “No.”

“He simply paid you a great deal and told you to do it, with no information about what you might be facing?”

“Yes. I didn’t know there was a wizard involved. Wizards were illegal at the time, most of them had been put to death.” Snorer relaxed further as common sense started overriding his overwhelming guilt.

“Then you cannot be held responsible for your failure to assassinate your target.” Siglyn sounded slightly amused. “There. That is a bit better, yes? Now to work on what happened to your family.”

Snorer winced, “I’d rather not have to . . .”

“You wish to be haunted by their faces until it drives you to kill yourself?” Siglyn’s voice was chiding, obviously thinking he was being stupid.

Snorer shook his head. “No. I don’t want that.”

“Good. You are a smart man.” Her fingers shifted position and Snorer felt inexplicably calm. “Now, tell me again what happened to your family.”

    3.       Centaur foals are in a constant danger due to their size compared to the adults, and if they wander off, they can get trampled if someone in the herd is in hurry and doesn’t see them. This little colt wandered off from his mother and got in the way of some young hunters chasing a deer. He was quickly taken to the healers and his physical wounds were dealt with, but Siglyn was called to help deal with the young colt’s sudden fear of the sound of his herd mates galloping and his intense nightmares about the incident that were keeping him from sleeping. Siglyn helps him and his mother who is wracked with guilt for not keeping a closer eye on him.

    4.       Siglyn is a firm believer that tears do not make one weak, that they are a natural way of dealing with trauma and grief and should not only be allowed but encouraged in certain situations. If she senses that someone is holding tears back, she will give them a hug if it is acceptable and try to give them the opportunity and permission to let those tears out. Due to her empathic nature it is not unusual for her to cry with the one she’s comforting, especially if it is due to something she is also sad about.

As Siglyn helped to clean and wrap Yokov’s wounds he told her what had happened to Snorer. He tried not to let it get to him, but it took him a great deal of effort to get the final bit of the tale past the giant lump that had suddenly formed in his throat. What surprised him was after he got the part out of how he’d battled himself to not kill Lord Artith outright before he ran, he found himself face to face with the female centaur’s impressive chest and hugged against it tightly.

{Yokov . . . we will figure out how to get him back.} Yokov could tell that Siglyn was crying, though he couldn’t sort out how her tears could have possibly made it down his own cheeks.

    5.       One side effect of Siglyn’s mental abilities is that she can “learn” someone’s language directly from their head. She’s also discovered that the ability can be projected to help someone learn a language she knows. After she learns King’s Common, she “teaches” it to her cousin Reidalv who accompanies her with Yokov and Snorer. In this picture, Rori learns Centaur from Siglyn which is very similar to Yokov’s native Western.

“Well, I had not planned on being up this early after last night, but I needed to talk to you.” Siglyn chuckled and bend down slightly, “It occurred to me, after you left last night, that you do not know how to speak the language we Centaurs do.”

“No, I don’t.” Rori looked up at her friend curiously then her eyes widened in delight, “Can you teach me?” If she could learn to understand the centaurs, then she would also be able to understand Yokov when he muttered things in his sleep. Not that she would admit being eaten up with curiosity as to what the man was saying in his dreams.

“I can.” Siglyn smiled. “But let us do this someplace where I will not have to bend over too much.” The female centaur led Rori to a wide but short stone wall. Rori climbed up onto the top of it at Siglyn’s direction and sat quietly while Siglyn put her fingers on Rori’s forehead.

It was an odd sensation. Rori thought it felt a little like the mind healing from before, except instead of blurring and fading the memories, new ones were being added. Her eyes squeezed shut as unfamiliar concepts and phrases rushed in and made themselves at home in her thoughts. She furrowed her brow then looked up at Siglyn, {That is a lot of words for the different types of markings on your horse parts.}

{Yes, it is.} Siglyn grinned back at her. {How do you feel?}

{Like I have suddenly had a whole language shoved in my brain.} Rori shook her head. {But I think I will get used to it.}

Description

Here's a breakdown of Siglyn's Guess Who. Numbers on the picture correspond to the numbers below. All but #3 have a story snippet (mainly because that one was something I created for OC Training)

  1.       Siglyn may not be part of the warriors, but like all centaurs she has been taught how to hunt for and defend herself and her herd mates. Most would agree that she has uncanny accuracy, but that is from intense practice and a need to make sure that whatever she shoots does not suffer. She is more likely to bring her quarry down in a shot to the eye or through the ear than to have to give chase to something mortally wounded but not dead. She has no problems with killing if it means survival for her and her herd mates and friends. The waves on her quiver show that her people still remember the vanished ocean.

Looking back on their escape, Yokov was amazed that the guards weren’t smart enough to just get out of their way. The damage would have far less. It started at a pounding speed with Yokov in the lead. The first gate was slammed closed in his face and he had to pull his horse back and around in a maneuver that might have broken the neck of a lesser trained animal. Reidalv came up to the gate with a terrifying roar, his mace swinging. Yokov saw first-hand that the gate had no chance against the raging centaur’s mace and huge hooves. Reidalv was a living battering ram, even the arrows shot at him seemed to just bounce right off his chest as Siglyn skillfully targeted those shooting at her cousin to reduce the danger. In what seemed like seconds, Reidalv had reduced the gate to splinters and the three of them, with Siglyn leading Snorer’s horse behind her, raced out. The second and third gates suffered the same fate. The fourth and final gate was metal, but there was no chance for the guard to get it closed for Siglyn proved to be an absolute quick and deadly aim with her arrows. All told, the damage left was bad, but it wasn’t nearly enough to pay back Gods’ Glass for what they’d lost.

    2.       Siglyn’s abilities range from simple calming to the ability to “mute” memories. She doesn’t get rid of them, but she can make them less intense and therefore less traumatizing. That way they’re still there as a reminder, especially if the memories were from a dangerous event that almost killed the person involved. No point in getting rid of memories if the same mistake might happen.

He was brought out of his new dismay by Siglyn’s calm voice, “Snorer . . . or should I call you Nyle?”

“No. Not Nyle. I’m not him anymore. I don’t know who I am anymore. Call me Snorer. It suits, and I’m used to it.”

Siglyn made a soft snorting noise and moved her hands slightly, “All right, Snorer it shall be for now. I need you to not focus on the negative.”

“How am I supposed to do that? There’s so much negative!” He squeezed his eyes tighter and bit back the anger he suddenly felt.

“It was not your fault.”

“But it was! All . . .”

Siglyn’s voice was calm and soothing, “You did not torture your family. You did not kill them. The Wizard you mentioned, Shok’Artel, he was responsible for all of it, correct?”

Snorer fought to keep still, and his eyes closed but all he wanted to do was to run away. He bit out his response through gritted teeth, “Yes. But it wouldn’t have happened if I hadn’t been so cocky. I thought I could kill the King without any complications.”

“Did your client warn you of the danger?”

Snorer suddenly stopped tensing up and relaxed in surprise as he managed to recall his initial hiring. “No.”

“He simply paid you a great deal and told you to do it, with no information about what you might be facing?”

“Yes. I didn’t know there was a wizard involved. Wizards were illegal at the time, most of them had been put to death.” Snorer relaxed further as common sense started overriding his overwhelming guilt.

“Then you cannot be held responsible for your failure to assassinate your target.” Siglyn sounded slightly amused. “There. That is a bit better, yes? Now to work on what happened to your family.”

Snorer winced, “I’d rather not have to . . .”

“You wish to be haunted by their faces until it drives you to kill yourself?” Siglyn’s voice was chiding, obviously thinking he was being stupid.

Snorer shook his head. “No. I don’t want that.”

“Good. You are a smart man.” Her fingers shifted position and Snorer felt inexplicably calm. “Now, tell me again what happened to your family.”

    3.       Centaur foals are in a constant danger due to their size compared to the adults, and if they wander off, they can get trampled if someone in the herd is in hurry and doesn’t see them. This little colt wandered off from his mother and got in the way of some young hunters chasing a deer. He was quickly taken to the healers and his physical wounds were dealt with, but Siglyn was called to help deal with the young colt’s sudden fear of the sound of his herd mates galloping and his intense nightmares about the incident that were keeping him from sleeping. Siglyn helps him and his mother who is wracked with guilt for not keeping a closer eye on him.

    4.       Siglyn is a firm believer that tears do not make one weak, that they are a natural way of dealing with trauma and grief and should not only be allowed but encouraged in certain situations. If she senses that someone is holding tears back, she will give them a hug if it is acceptable and try to give them the opportunity and permission to let those tears out. Due to her empathic nature it is not unusual for her to cry with the one she’s comforting, especially if it is due to something she is also sad about.

As Siglyn helped to clean and wrap Yokov’s wounds he told her what had happened to Snorer. He tried not to let it get to him, but it took him a great deal of effort to get the final bit of the tale past the giant lump that had suddenly formed in his throat. What surprised him was after he got the part out of how he’d battled himself to not kill Lord Artith outright before he ran, he found himself face to face with the female centaur’s impressive chest and hugged against it tightly.

{Yokov . . . we will figure out how to get him back.} Yokov could tell that Siglyn was crying, though he couldn’t sort out how her tears could have possibly made it down his own cheeks.

    5.       One side effect of Siglyn’s mental abilities is that she can “learn” someone’s language directly from their head. She’s also discovered that the ability can be projected to help someone learn a language she knows. After she learns King’s Common, she “teaches” it to her cousin Reidalv who accompanies her with Yokov and Snorer. In this picture, Rori learns Centaur from Siglyn which is very similar to Yokov’s native Western.

“Well, I had not planned on being up this early after last night, but I needed to talk to you.” Siglyn chuckled and bend down slightly, “It occurred to me, after you left last night, that you do not know how to speak the language we Centaurs do.”

“No, I don’t.” Rori looked up at her friend curiously then her eyes widened in delight, “Can you teach me?” If she could learn to understand the centaurs, then she would also be able to understand Yokov when he muttered things in his sleep. Not that she would admit being eaten up with curiosity as to what the man was saying in his dreams.

“I can.” Siglyn smiled. “But let us do this someplace where I will not have to bend over too much.” The female centaur led Rori to a wide but short stone wall. Rori climbed up onto the top of it at Siglyn’s direction and sat quietly while Siglyn put her fingers on Rori’s forehead.

It was an odd sensation. Rori thought it felt a little like the mind healing from before, except instead of blurring and fading the memories, new ones were being added. Her eyes squeezed shut as unfamiliar concepts and phrases rushed in and made themselves at home in her thoughts. She furrowed her brow then looked up at Siglyn, {That is a lot of words for the different types of markings on your horse parts.}

{Yes, it is.} Siglyn grinned back at her. {How do you feel?}

{Like I have suddenly had a whole language shoved in my brain.} Rori shook her head. {But I think I will get used to it.}